Juventus Target Van Persie And Suarez

byDavidonMay 9, 2012

Juventus fans are still celebrating their 28th Scudetto, but the Italian champions are already planning for next season.

One area to improve is up-front with veteran forward Alessandro Del Piero set to leave the club at the end of the season and on-loan striker Marco Borriello expected to return to Roma in July. One name that is being linked with a move to the champions is Arsenal’s Robin van Persie.

“Van Persie is a great player,” Juventus general director Giuseppe Marotta said to www.calciomercato.com. “He is a complete player and would be useful to any team. But he still has one year left in his contract with Arsenal. We will try to put the icing on the cake this summer but the important thing is that the mix is good.”

Van Persie leads the Premier League with 30 goals so far this season. Juve have also been closely monitoring Liverpool striker Luis Suarez as well as Real Madrid forward Gonzalo Higuain.

“Van Persie, Suarez or Higuain? They are three important players,” Marotta said.

“In fantasy football we could have the three of them playing in the same line-up but in reality, it is different. If one of them arrives (here) is not because he will be the less talented as other things have to be taken into account, such as the financial aspect.

“Moreover, if (Real Madrid coach Jose) Mourinho does not want to sell Higuain it will be impossible for us to get him and we also have to take that into consideration.”

Three big name strikers that will cost Juventus upwards of 35 million euros to buy. Nobody else in Serie A can afford to pay that sort of money for a striker these days under Uefa’s Financial Fair Play rules. But we might be seeing the financial advantage that Juve has over its rivals due to its new stadium that it owns, and thus it gets to keep all the matchday (and non-matchday) revenue.